Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-09-25

deception, but when q gentleman, whose
narrative suggested this article, averred
that he had seen these illusory lakes nav
igated by phantom boats filled with Wis
i0nary people he saw, dare say, thought
30 be drawing the long bow, even by many
miragists in good standing
For aught know he may have been.
can only attest the eatirely credible char
acter of the statement
Away up at the headwaters of the Mis-
souri,, near the British possessions, found
myself one afternoon rather unexpectedly
on. the coast of an ocean. At less than a
gunshot from where stood was rs plainly
defined a seabeach as one would wish tn
see. The eye could follow it in either di-
rection, with all its bays, inlets and prom
ontories, to the hOrison. It was studded
with Islands, and these with tall trees OF
many kinds, both islands and trees being
reflected in the water with absolute fideli-
ty. On many of the islands were houses,
showing white beneath the trees, and on
one which lay farthest out seaward was a
considerable city, with towers, domes and
clusters of steeples.
There were ships in the ofirg whose
sails glistened in the sunlight, and closer
in several boats OF novel b ut graceful
sign, crowded with human figure ?, NOV
smoothly among the lesser islands, im
PEELED by some power invisible from any
point of view, each boat attended by its
inverted reflection "crowding mp beneath
the keel"
It must be admitted that the voyagers
were habited after a somewhat uncommon
fashiOn-almOst unearthly, may say, and
were so grouped that ut my distance
could not clearly distinguish their indi-
yidual limbs and attitudes. Their tea-
lures were, of course, entirely invisible.
None the less were they plainly human
beings-what other creatures would be
boating?
OF the features of the scene-the coast,
islands, trees, houses, city and ships hull
down in the ofling-l distinctly affirm an
absolute identity of visible aspect with
those To which We are accustomed in the
realm of reality; Imagination had simply
nothing to do with the matter. True, |
had not recently had the advantage of SER
ing any such objects, except trees, and
these had been mighty poor specimens,
but, like Macdutf, | could not but re-
member such things were, " nor had for
gotten how they looked.
OF course | was not for an instant de-
eeiyed by all this; l knew that under it all
lay a particularly forbidding and inhOs-
pitable expanse of sagebrush and cactus,
peOpled with nothing more nearly akin to
me than prairie dogs, ground owls and
with these exceptions
the desert was as desOlate as the environ
ment of Ozymandias' vast and tinkless
legs Of stone" But as a show 1t was
surely the most enchanting that human
eyes had ever looked on; and after more
years than / care to count, it remains one
of memOry's most precious possessions.
The one thing which always somewhat
impair7 the illusion in such instanees-the
absence Of the horizon line on the water
did not greatly abate the varisemblance in
this for the large island in the distance
nearly closed the view seward, and the
ships occupied most of the remaining
space. had but to fancy slight haze on
the farther water, and all was right and
regular.
For more than half hour this charm
ing picture remained intact, then ugly
patches OF plain began TO show through,
the islands with their palms and temples
slowly dissolved, the boats foundered
with every sould on board, the sea DRIFT
ing over the headlands in most unwate-
like way. and inside the hour since
Like stout COrtez. when with eagles eyes
He stared al the Pacific. aud all his men
Looked at each other with wild SuImiSe,
Silent upon peak in Daricu,
| had discovered this unknown sea all this
pageant had faded like the
baseless fabric of the vision that it was and
left not a rack behind.